An ex-YBNL signee, popularly known as Viktoh, has yet to recover from the torture he was allegedly subjected to by a police officer in Lagos following his refusal to submit his car key.
In a video making the rounds on social media, the right eye of the artiste was allegedly badly injured by the officer, who was wearing a black sweatshirt.
We gathered that the incident happened around 10pm on Wednesday at the Alpha Beach Road, Igbo Efon, Lekki, Lagos, while Viktoh was on his way to the African Shrine for the Zlatan concert.
In a telephone conversation with our correspondent on Thursday, Viktoh said he was rushing to the concert when he was stopped by the police officers, adding that his refusal to allow one of the officers to remove the key of his car from the ignition led to the assault.
He stated, “I had a concert that I was meant to perform at and I was in a hurry. When I got to the police checkpoint, I stopped. I was trying to explain to them that I was in a hurry and I could not afford to wait for too long. They were questioning me on why I was in a hurry, where I was rushing to and who I was.
“I told them that I am an artiste and that I was rushing to a concert, but they said it was not their business. I was like we should calm down and talk.
“The next thing I saw was that one of the officers was stretching his hand to remove my car key from the ignition. I challenged him that he did not have the right to do that. He tried it the second time but I did not allow him. At the third attempt, I got a punch on my face.”
Viktoh noted that the officer, who punched him, appeared drunk, adding that he had yet to lodge a formal complaint with the police because he had to attend to his health first.
“I think the officer was drunk, because after he perpetrated the act, he broke down in tears. There were two other officers with him, but they ran away when they saw what their colleague had done. I was in serious pain and I am only trying to recover before I lodge a complaint with the police,” he added.
When the Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Chike Oti, was contacted, he noted that there was nothing in the footage to suggest that the person who allegedly assaulted the artiste was a police officer, adding that investigation was ongoing.
He said, “There is no formal complaint to the police by the artiste, because I have made efforts to contact the DPOs within that vicinity to ask if there was any report of a case of assault but there is none.
The information from the footage is very scanty; the footage did not tell us if the man was a police officer or not, because he was not in uniform. The footage did not tell us what transpired between the two parties that let to what happened.
“Nevertheless, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police has directed the intelligence section to study the video and see if we can establish the identity of the person.
As far as the Lagos State Police Command is concerned, we cannot claim to know a person that is unknown to us except when investigation reveals that the person is a police officer. As soon as the identity is established, rest assured that the commissioner of police will make it public.”
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